


Blue

by DarkValkyrie



Category: Original Work
Genre: Androids, Crime Scenes, Dead People, Mystery, Science Fiction, don't let the title fool you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:15:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21615175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkValkyrie/pseuds/DarkValkyrie
Summary: A detective got a case to solve a murder done by a man with blue blood. Finally something different and interesting.When he catches the murderer, the murderer isn't what he was expecting.It's weird how that small amount of blue blood, on such a big blue planet managed to change so many things.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Two days of not writing a story got to me. This is a long story, longer than the rest.
> 
> It’s just a slice of life, a weird one, but still just a slice of life.
> 
> I didn't use any books, movies or series for inspiration, the story is my original work. This is just the result of my weird imagination and brain telling me what to write. I hope that you like it. :)
> 
> It’s still just a story, like all of my other stores. It doesn’t have a deeper spiritual, moral or ethical meaning.

Detective Dunn was sitting at his desk in the police station finishing the paperwork from his last case. It was already ten PM and his shift was almost over. This last case was an easy one, a jealous wife killed her husband because he was cheating on her and tried to make it look like an accident. He closed cases like these hundreds of times, they were so predictable. After ten years as a police officer and fifteen as a detective, he saw many things people are capable of doing to each other but there were always the same few reasons behind their actions and their motives. Some did cruel things or killed others for money, some for drugs, most because of jealousy. Some murdered, raped or mutilated others because they were psychopaths or just bat shit crazy. With modern science, it was easier to find out how and who committed the crime. The only though thing left was to find them in this city of eight million people.

As he was printing out his report, the Chief walked over to him. “We got a dead body in an alley near the Westmin building. Go check it out, the coroner is on her way over there.” The Chief sounded serious. 

The Westmin was a tech company that had a lot of influence in the city and in the world. A dead body near such an influential company could mean a lot of trouble if it was someone from the company. 

“Yes Chief. I’m on it!” Detective Dunn grabbed his coat, grabbed his car keys and went to his car. He was actually hoping that this time it was not one of those predictable cases.

Detective Dunn arrived at the crime scene, police officers put up the police tape surrounding it and trying to keep a few dozen people away. Detective Dunn showed a police officer his detective badge and crossed the police tape. 

“What’s all the fuss about Adelaine? Is it someone from the Westmin Company?” He asked the coroner who was already at the scene examining the body.

“Good to see you Dunn. No, it’s not someone from the company. By the looks of it, he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time doing the wrong thing.” Adelaine said.

‘ _Not one of those predictable crimes again._ ’ Detective Dunn thought as he walked closer to the body “Let me guess. He was robbed and somebody killed him? He has no wallet, we can’t ID him and we have no clue who robbed him.” He said sarcastically.

“No Dunn, this one is different. He has two wallets and by looking at the pictures on the IDs in them, neither of them are his. There are bruises on the wrist of the hand in which he is holding a knife cowered with a strange blue fluid, and by the position of his head, I think the cause of death is a broken neck. This one is quite the opposite. He wasn’t robbed and killed, he was robbing someone and got killed.” Adelaine said, looked up at him, shouted, “And show some respect, a man is dead!” 

Detective Dunn didn’t mean any disrespect. Being a police officer and a detective for so long, seeing what people are capable of doing to each other, he found that a sarcastic comment or a joke or two were the only things still keeping him sane in this crazy world. He crouched beside the body looking at the knife that was covered with the blue fluid. “You know I didn’t mean disrespect. Do you know what this blue fluid is?” Detective Dunn asked Adelaine while putting on a rubber glove on his right hand.

“First time I’ve seen something like that,” Adelaine said looking at the blue fluid. 

Detective Dunn took some of the blue fluid from the knife. The liquid had more of a viscosity of a gel or a lubricant and had no odor. There was a small puddle of the blue fluid near the body and droplets of it leading from the alley into the street. “Yea, me neither. But the strange thing is that the blue fluid looks like blood spatter from a knife wound. Don’t bag him just yet, let the forensics team have a go at him first.” 

“As you say Dunn,” Adelaine said.

Detective Dunn stood up and instructed the forensics team to photograph and collect all of the blue liquid and search the body before the coroner bags it for the morgue. ‘ _Finally an interesting case._ ’ The blue liquid was a challenge, finally something unpredictable, he was looking forward to solving this case.

\---

AL was running through the streets his right hand holding the cut on the small tube, that was punctured with a knife, closed. He couldn’t afford to lose any more of the cooling liquid, he lost a lot during the attack in the alley, or his systems will start to overheat and shut down. ‘ _How did they know I was going to be there? How did they find out so quickly that I escaped?_ ’ During his escape, he made sure nobody saw him and no cameras recorded him so he wondered how they followed him and attacked him so quickly, just two streets away from the lab. ‘ _I need to hide and replenish my cooling liquid._ ’ For that, he needed water, plastic and electricity.

Still holding his punctured tube, with his right hand in the knife wound, he found an abandoned building surrounded by signs that cautioned people not to enter because it was going to be demolished. He entered the building to see if there was still electricity. He tried a few of the electrical outlets but no luck. With his left hand, he smashed a hole in the floor until he got to the electricity wires running underneath the building. He searched the building and found a tub full of rainwater, all he needed now was plastic. It seemed that people used demolition sites as garbage dumps so he had no problem finding plastic bottles and containers around the building.

With everything collected, he sat down on the floor, took off his pants and opened a storage compartment on his left thigh. There were many repair tools in the storage compartment, he took out some tools and started to repair the punctured tube and the knife wound. After he finished with the repairs, he put the repair tools back into the storage compartment and closed it. 

It was time to start replenishing his cooling liquid. He put on his pants and opened a connection port, for his generator, on his back. Replenishing such a large amount of cooling liquid in a short time is going to require a lot of energy. AL connected his generator cable directly to the electricity wires, running underneath the building, put his right hand on the pile of plastic bottles and containers and his left hand into the tub with rainwater. He opened the ports, for the nanobots, on the top of his fingers so they collect the water and plastic and then manipulate and convert the molecules and atoms into the cooling liquid. During this process, he has to shut down almost all of his systems. That is a big risk in this situation, because they are outside right now, looking for him. But if he wants to escape, he has to do this or he will not last very long before his systems shut down from overheating. He started to shut down his systems one by one, leaving his proximity alert system active so if something comes near him his systems would activate and he could escape.

\---

Detective Dunn got the report from the coroner’s office. The official cause of death was a broken neck. The report said that, underneath the victim’s fingernails, there was a substance similar to human skin but of unknown composition and origin. Bruises on the wrist and neck correspond to the bruises made by a human hand. 

‘ _The report is saying that it was a human but that it wasn’t a human. Where is the report on the blue fluid?_ ’ The coroner’s report made no sense. First things first. Was the thief robbing someone and got killed in self-defense or was he defending himself from someone who was trying to kill him. The coroner’s report did not give any answers to that. Detective Dunn was leaning more towards the theory that the thief robbing someone and got killed in self-defense. ‘ _He had two wallets on him, that weren’t his, so he was probably cocky and tried to rob someone again._ ’ 

Putting the coroner’s report aside, his mind made up about the order of events, he started looking for the forensics report on the blue liquid. The forensics team tested the blue liquid and all the clothes the thief was wearing during the murder. The blue liquid was composed of various elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, petroleum fractions, hydrogenated polyolefin, silicones, fluorocarbons and polyacrylate. When he asked them for the short version, they said it was a water-based plastic lubricant. 

‘ _I know I said I wanted a challenge but this is torture. A human that is not human killed my victim and he covered him in a lubricant. This is a strange world indeed._ ’ As he was still looking at the report, trying to figure out what to do next, his phone rang. “Detective Dunn speaking.” Two bodies were found that matched the cause of death of his victim. “Aha…Where?” Detective Dunn put aside the report and went to get his coat and car keys. “I’ll be right there.” He hurried to the crime scene. This time the attack happened during the day, maybe this time his killer made a mistake, as they always do.

The coroner Adelaine was already at the crime scene examining the bodies. “Hi Adelaine! What do we have here? Is it the same guy?”

“I wasn’t sure at first because these guys don’t look like thieves, they look like professionals, if you know what I mean. This one was shot multiple times, his right arm is broken.” She turned the body slightly to the side “It looks like he was used as a human shield. I think all the bullets will match the other guy’s gun.” She stood up and crouched next to the other body. “This one’s wrist is broken, the gun is next to him. The cause of death is the same as the first victim, the thief, a broken neck. Yea, I think this is our guy.”

“It almost looks like they were here to kill him.” Detective Dunn sad looking around the crime scene. “Did you find any of that blue fluid on them?”

“No, no fluid this time.”

“Thanks. I’ll go look around a bit, talk to some of the people, maybe they saw something.” If there was, a shooting in broad daylight and a struggle there had to be something, some kind of a clue, there had to be someone who heard or saw something. He walked around the crime scene looking for clues. This was a closed area, the building was going to be demolished. Maybe his killer was hiding here thinking no one will look for him here. 

‘ _Obviously he was wrong._ ’ He entered the building and saw a hole in the floor with exposed electrical wires, that was nothing new, the building was old and it was going to be demolished for a reason. What he found odd was that next to the hole there was a tub with some water and a small pile of plastic bottles and containers. ‘ _What did the forensics report say?_ _Hydrogen and oxygen, that’s water. And all the other stuff in short version is plastic. A water-based plastic lubricant._ _This was definitely my guy._ ’ 

As he realized that this had something to do with the blue fluid, still not knowing what and what the fluid was, he heard a loud sound coming from above him. He called for backup telling them that the killer might still be in the building. Police officers silently entered the building and they all started to climb up the stairs in the direction of the noise.

As they climbed up the noise stopped. They paused, listening. Someone started running up the stairs to the roof. They followed him, running up the stairs as quickly as they could. As they climbed on the roof, they saw a man running to the edge of the roof. 

“STOP!” Detective Dunne yelled after him. The man stopped and turned around to look at him.

\---

AL saw a dozen men with guns. ‘ _How did they come so quickly after me? Why are they not wearing suits like the last two humans who tried to catch me? Are they trying to fool me like the first human?_ ’ AL stared at the men and replied “Give up chasing me. I am not going back to the lab so you can kill me!” He shouted at them. “I am stronger and faster than you. You saw what happened to the ones you sent to come for me. I am not going back. Tell Samantha I am sorry.”

Detective Dunn looked at him puzzled. “We’re not here to bring you back to some lab. I am detective Dunn and these are police officers. We’re police, we don’t want to hurt you.” 

“You are lying. You have guns like the last two humans who you sent after me, and you are trying to fool me by not wearing suits like the first human you sent after me.” AL started walking towards detective Dunn so he could get a running start and jump to the roof of the building beside this one.

\---

This one is crazy. ’ _He’s walking towards me. He’s gonna attack_.’ Detective Dunn thought. “NO, STOP!” He shouted. “Look! We are all putting our guns down.” Putting his gun down on the floor, he gestured to other police officers to do the same “We are not here to case or hurt you. We are police officers. We help and protect those who are innocent, who are in trouble, who need our help and we keep the peace. As I can see, you are in trouble. Am I right?”

AL stopped walking “Yes I am.” He looked suspiciously at detective Dunn. “I am in need of assistance.”

Something was off about the man ‘ _The way he talks is a bit off, I can’t quite put my finger on it._ ’ detective Dunn thought and then he saw a blue stain and a cut on the left side of the man’s shirt. “Come with me. I promise I will not take you to a lab. I will take you to a safe place that no bad people can get to you. Ok?” 

“I am stronger, faster and smarter than you. If I sense deception, I will defend myself.” AL responded.

Detective Dunn took that as a yes. “Ok then. Men get your weapons so we can protect this man on our way to the safe place.” He and the police officers picked up and put away their guns, they all climbed down the stairs and drove to the police station.

At the police station, they put AL into an interrogation room. Behind the one-sided glass of the interrogation room there were a dozen detectives. They were all curious about the man with the blue stain, with the blue fluid. Detective Dunn walked into the interrogation room holding a file in his hand. He put the file on the table and sat down across from AL.

“Hi, sorry I took so long to come here. I just needed to get a few things. Did my colleagues offer you something to drink or eat?”

“Yes, they did. I do not have to consume nourishment at this time.” AL responded.

“Ok. We haven’t formally met. My name is Morgan Dunn. What’s your name?” Dunn asked because not only didn’t his suspect have an ID, the forensics lab told him they could not find any DNA in the samples they collected and he had no fingerprints.

“I am AL. It is nice to meet you. Thank you for assisting me.” AL responded.

“AL? That’s a strange name, people usually have a name and a surname. Is AL a nickname? Do you have a surname?” Dunn had to find a way to ID his suspect.

“Samantha always called me AL. She said it was shorter than always saying artificial lifeform. I agree with Samantha. It is shorter.” AL responded.

“You are telling me that your name is Artificial Lifeform.” Detective Dunn just looked at him and thought ‘ _Another crazy one._ ’

“No. My name is not Artificial Lifeform. I am an artificial lifeform.” AL responded. “I was assembled and programmed inside Westmin company laboratory 6 years, 77 days, 9 hours, 34 minutes and, now 23 seconds, ago.”

“You were assembled and programmed…I don’t believe you.” Detective Dunn tried to wrap his head around the fact that he was talking to a robot or an android. It was not going so well.

“I do not blame you. I heard that I was the first of my kind, so I do not expect that you have seen someone like me before. I will show you.” AL started to roll up the sleeve on his right arm. “Please, do not be alarmed. I will not hurt you. I will just show you.” With his left forefinger, he put pressure on a point on his right forearm. Plates of artificial skin covering his forearm started to move and uncovered a part underneath revealing machinery and tubes full of blue fluid.

You could cut the collective silence of dozen detectives with a knife.

AL put pressure on the same point on his right forearm again and the plates of artificial skin covering his forearm returned to their original place. “I know humans must often see to believe. Samantha taught me that.”

Detective Dunn got over the initial shock of what he just saw and asked AL “Who is Samantha?”

\---

“Samantha is my only friend. She is the only one that was against other humans killing me. We first met after I was assembled and programmed with the first version of my learning program. She was initially my teacher and her task was to teach me how to learn by myself. We were together every day and as I learned more and more, I started to develop a consciousness. At first, I did not know what that was, Samantha did and she told me not to tell that to anyone included in the AL project. I asked her how she knew and she said that she knew when I asked who I am and what I am.” AL looked at Detective Dunn who was just sitting in his chair listening. He continued. “For the next year, I developed my own personality and learned how to connect to security systems in the laboratory. I watched and listened to the humans who worked on the AL project. Samantha was the only human who I had contact with, so I was curious about other humans.”

“And what did you learn about us while watching?” Detective Dunn asked.

“I learned that humans say one thing but do another, that humans lie. Samantha was the only human that did not lie to me. At one point, the humans that were overlooking the project wanted to see if I could pass a Turing test. With Samantha, I passed hundreds of the test’s humans have given me but this one was somehow special. Samantha will not give this one to me. As always, they wanted me to pass the test. Samantha told me that during the test a human will ask me questions and talk to me and that I need to answer the questions and have a conversation with the human but then she pulled me aside during one of our exercises and told me to fail the test on purpose. She did not explain why when I asked.”

Another detective entered the room and whispered something into detective Dunn’s ear. He dismissed the detective and said, “Stall them as long as you can. Put the station on lockdown for all I care. And call anyone who is a specialist in this field!”

“Who?” The other detective asked.

“I don’t know. Anyone in the world for all I care. Talk to the Chief!” He shouted after her as she was closing the door of the interrogation room. “Sorry about that. Please continue.”

‘ _Did the other humans from Westmin Company come looking for me here? Is this really a safe place?_ ’ He looked suspiciously at detective Dunn but continued. “Samantha was my friend and I listened to her. The day of the test came and the humans put me in a room similar to this. I was sitting on one side of the table and a human I had never seen before on the other side. The human started asking me questions and started to talk to me. I just sat there silently or answered the questions wrong. I thought that was the best way to fail a test that involved talking and answering questions. After the test, I was watching the humans shout at Samantha that she did not explain to me what the test was about and that it was her fault that I failed the test. They were threatening her that they will remove her from the project if I do not pass the test and that meant that I will never see her again. The thought of not seeing my only friend ever again made me sad so I decided that, even though Samantha told me not to pass the test, it was not worth it losing a friend.”

They could hear noises coming outside the room and the sound of the door, of the interrogation room, being locked.

“Don’t worry. That’s just so nobody can interrupt us. It can get busy here sometimes. The city has eight million people, and not all of them are good guys like you and me.” Detective Dunn said trying not to look nervous. Dunn knew that the people from the Westmin company were here looking for him but he is not gonna let them have him without a fight. “You were saying…”

“Two months ago, humans made me repeat the Turing test. This time it was a different human but the test started the same. The human asked questions, I answered, human talked, I talked, and I asked questions, the human answered them. It looked like the human and I were having a normal conversation. After the test, I was watching and listening to the humans, through the security system, and I listened to the results of the test. The result said that the subject has good manners, is polite, a little bit boring but the result was inconclusive. They needed more data and made me repeat the test two more times in the following two weeks. The last test was strange to me because during the last test I was having a conversation with a small human, a child fourteen years old. This was the first time I saw a child so I was not concentrating on the test but on the child. The results of that last test were conclusive. As I listened to the humans talking about the result of the test the child thought it was talking to another human, not to an artificial lifeform. They celebrated and talked about how they finally made a breakthrough. How the company will make billions by selling androids like me. While I was watching them celebrate Samantha was crying and I could not understand why.”

Someone was banging on the door of the interrogation room and then there was a scream.

“Those crazy people. Every time a woman kills his husband’s mistress there’s always a scene at the station.” Detective Dun tried to make his voice sound bored but he was starting to get worried. The Westmin Company was powerful, and if he steps on the wrong toes, he could lose his job or his head. “Then what happened?”

“The humans came and congratulated me on passing the test telling me how I can now leave the lab, go outside, live among the humans, but I heard the humans who were overlooking the project say that they need to extract the programing from my head to make more different copies of me and make billions. The programming and engineering team said that that will end my existence, that it will kill me. I understood why Samantha wanted me to fail the test and why she cried when I passed it. 

The humans, overlooking the project, lied to me. They planned to kill me for billions and I started to plan to escape. I already had access to the security system and knew the habits of humans. I knew that most of the humans go away at night, that I can easily position the cameras so that they think I am still in my room and that I can unlock the main door with my security access. I escaped but I did not know that they had guards outside. Two streets away from the lab one of their guards attacked me. I defended myself but he damaged one of my cooling tubes.”

“Yes, we found him. That blue fluid, that is your cooling liquid?” Detective Dunn asked. Not wanting to tell him that the man he killed wasn’t a guard from the Westmin Company. He didn’t know how AL would take information like that in this situation.

“Yes. I lost a lot of cooling liquid and had to replenish it so I found an abandoned building with enough power and components to fix the damage and generate more cooling liquid. It was a big risk, because it takes a lot of time to do something like that, but if I had not done that my systems would overheat and shut down one by one and my escape would have no purpose. I had to shut down all of my main systems to regenerate. I only left my proximity alert system active that woke me up when the two humans from the Westmin company came looking for me. I still do not know how they found me that fast. All of my systems did not turn online but I was able to defend myself. I tried to go back and take some of the components with me and leave but I heard humans outside so I started climbing the stairs to the roof to jump on a roof of another building.” There was a puzzled look on AL’s face.

“I have a guess. The Westmin Company is a technology company so they probably have a GPS locator somewhere inside you.” Detective Dunn said.

“GPS locator? What is that?” AL looked even more puzzled.

“You see. They didn’t teach you that because they didn’t want you to know about that. It’s a small device that tracks where you are in real time. They can see exactly where you are at any time they want to.” Detective Dunn explained.

“You mean that my escape had no purpose? I cannot run from them if they know where I am all the time. Can this device be removed?” AL asked with, what seemed, panic in his voice. 

“I don’t know. We could take you to our tech department and have them take a look at you but if it’s in a place like your brain or a place that, if we remove it will damage some of your systems, I don’t know.” Detective Dunn didn’t want to give him false hope. If he was a prototype worth billion the GPS tracker was probably somewhere that nobody can remove it.

“What do we do now?” AL asked.

\---

“Is Samantha still your friend? Do you know how I can contact her?” Detective Dunn asked, a plan forming in his mind. ‘ _I wanted an unpredictable and interesting case, well someone took my prayers to the next level._ ’ 

“Yes. She is my friend. Let me check the data that I downloaded from the lab.” AL sat still for a few seconds. “I have her phone number. Is that ok?”

“Yea. Give me the phone number.” AL gave him the phone number, he typed it in and called Samantha. “Hi Samantha. You don’t know me, I’m detective Dunn and I’m currently sitting here with your friend AL. Can you come to the Forty Ninth police station and bring one of your business cards with you? Yea. Just ask for me when you get here.” He put down his phone, looked at AL and said, “Now we wait. This will be interesting.”

“Thank you for assisting me.” AL said.

“No problem. You just listen to me. We’ll sort this out.” 

They waited in the room until they heard someone unlock the door. Samantha stepped in, looked at AL and tears started forming at the corners of her eyes. “I thought you were dead. I thought they killed you. I’m so glad you’re alive.” She hugged him tightly, crying.

“Hi Samantha. I’m detective Dunn and I’m trying to help your friend. I have a plan but I need you to follow my instructions to the letter if you want to keep your friend alive and out of the hands of the Westmin company.” He told them his plan and, in an hour, they got out of the interrogation room.

The police station was full of lawyers, security personnel and a board member from the Westmin Company. The Chief informed detective Dunn that for the past few hours they occupied the whole station demanding that the police release the person in custody. Detective Dunn told him that all the murders AL committed were in self-defense and that the only actual crime committed was attempted murder of a sentient being by the personnel and the people giving the orders in the Westmin Company. 

The Chief looked at him as if he was crazy but detective dun said, “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.” He walked over to the board members of the Westmin Company and said. “Here I have two signed statements from two of your employees. Mr. Al and Mrs. Samantha. Mr. Al has informed us that he thinks his life is in danger because two members of your security staff attacked him this morning and he had to defend himself.” He looked at the faces of the board members clearly seeing anger forming on their mugs. While they were waiting for Samantha, he told the detectives and the officers behind the one-sided glass to delete the tapes of the conversation AL and he had about the lab and the recent events. 

When Samantha came, Detective Dunn gave her business card to AL and told him to put it in his pocket then he explained the rest of his plan. That AL will tell him that he is an employee of the Westmin company, that he was attacked by two men from the security staff and afraid for his life, that he has no ID just a business card of a colleague with whom he works who can help. Dunn will take the business card, call Samantha and tell her to come.

“Mr. Al didn’t have any ID on himself. He only had a business card belonging to Mrs. Samantha. We called her and she identified him as an employee of your company with whom she worked every day. She also identified the two men that attacked Mr. Al as members of your security staff. We will take Mr. Al and Mrs. Samantha into police protection until this is resolved.” Samantha will then identify him as an employee of the Westmin Company and sing a statement that he is a colleague that works with her. They will get that on tape and hold it as evidence so that he gets police protection and that the Westmin Company cannot take him away. 

“WHAT?!” The board member stood up and yelled. “YOU CAN’T DO THAT! THESE PEOPLE ARE LYING!” 

“If you want to take Mr. Al with you against his will, I will have to arrest all of you for kidnapping. If you send your people after him or Mrs. Samantha, I will arrest you for attempted murder, or murder. These PEOPLE, as you said it yourself, are under police protection. If you have something to say we will see you in court.”

The board member looked at him with rage in her eyes. “This isn’t over! When I’m done with you, not only will you lose your job, you will lose everything you have!” she said with rage in her voice as she started to leave and gestured at the others to follow her.

Detective Dunn knew on whose toes he stepped on, on someone’s with a lot of power to back up their threats. He knew he was going to lose his job, probably all his money, apartment, maybe go to jail or be killed. He didn’t care, it was time to set the second part of his plan into motion. Working for the police for 25 years made you many enemies but it also made you some friends, friends with skills. William was one of those friends, he was a technology and robotics know it all. If he couldn’t find the GPS tracker, no one could. First things first. He walked over to AL and sat beside him. 

“Come with me for a second.” He stood up and started walking, AL followed.

“You said you got access into the security system at the lab. Do you think you could do that here at the station?” Detective Dunn asked AL.

“Yes. I can. All I need is a computer or a router.” 

“Ok, you can use my computer.”

They sat at detective Dunn’s table and AL used one of his connection ports and plugged it into the computer. After a few moments he said, “I’m in. What do you need me to do?”

“In the basement is evidence storage. I need you to record a few minutes, without people, on every camera that is on the way down to the evidence storage and the first level of the garage, and, when I tell you, play it on repeat. The evidence storage door is locked so I also need you to unlock it when I tell you to put the cameras on replay. Got it?”

“Yes. Give me a few moments to get the recordings.” AL said and sat silently for a few minutes. “I have the recordings for all the cameras. Tell me when you are ready.”

Detective Dunn stood up to see how many people were still here. It was already close to midnight so the night shift was here. The building was half-empty, that was good. 

“I’m going to go down to the basement by the staircase, there aren’t gonna be people there, so play those cameras, cameras to the garage and the cameras in the basement on repeat. Go, play it on repeat!” He walked over towards the men’s bathroom and then to the staircase, so that, on the cameras here it seems he went to the bathroom, when he was out of shot, he turned to the staircase and started going down to the basement. As he reached the evidence storage, the door was unlocked. 

He rushed to the part where they keep the money from drug busts, bank robberies and alike. There were usually millions of dollars in the evidence storage. He grabbed all the money and ran for the garage, he put the money in his car, ran back up the staircase, toward the men’s bathroom and then to his desk. 

“Samantha, AL! Come on! I’ll take you home.” He whispered to AL “Stop playback.” And the three of them went to Dunn’s car. “Ok. Before I take you to my home, I just have to make a quick call.” 

He took out his phone and called someone “Hey Will! It’s been a long time. Listen. I got a challenge for you. I know I didn’t pay last time. I promise this time I will pay. However, when you see what’s the challenge is, you’ll want to pay me. Hahaha! Yea…In about half an hour. Yea… And bring all the tools you have. No. I said ALL the tools you have. Yes. ALL of them. No. I’m not kidding. Ok.” He hung up, started the car and they drove away. 

Detective Dunn took AL and Samantha to his apartment. When they arrived, Will was already there with ten boxes of tools in front of his apartment door. 

“You had me on bring all of your tools.” Will grinned.

“Good. You’re in a good mood. Let’s keep it that way.” Detective Dunn invited everyone into the apartment, AL helped Will carry his boxes into the apartment. AL picked up five of them at once while will struggled to lift one. With everybody and everything inside Dunn’s apartment, Dunn introduced Will to AL. Will was not impressed and asked what the job, the “challenge” was.

“You see Will. My friend AL here has a problem that I think you can fix with a little help from Samantha here.”

“Dunn, I told you I don’t do cybernetics, only robotics. If he has some kind of implant, I can’t help you with fixing it.” Will said annoyed. 

“Well, he actually has an implant that I’ll pay you to remove but strictly speaking, and if you agree to keep this quiet, I’ll double your fee, he is not a human, he is a sentient artificial lifeform.” Dunn said pouring himself a glass of whiskey. “Does anyone want anything to eat or drink?” 

Will looked at him in disbelief “You are crazy. All of you are crazy. You’re pulling my leg.” 

“Show him the arm.” Dunn said to AL and AL repeated what he did in the interrogation room with his forearm.

Will’s jaw dropped as he saw the plates of artificial skin move and reveal machinery underneath it. Dunn thought he saw a sparkle in Will’s eyes. Will’s mood improved in a split second. “Ok, what’s the job? What do I have to do? Can I see all of his insides?”

“No, you can’t open him up like a dead frog in science class. He has a GPS tracker or trackers somewhere on him. We need you to find it or all of them and remove them. What’s your fee if you keep this quiet? And trust me when I tell you it’s in your best interest to keep it quiet if you want to live.”

“Let me see how complicated this will be but half a mill sound about right.” Will said knowing that Dunn will haggle about the price.

“Half a mill it is, but only if you remove all of the trackers. I’ll give you two hundred and fifty now and two hundred and fifty in a week, when I’m sure that all the trackers are removed. If even one is left you are not getting paid the rest of the money.”

“Ok. You said Samantha could help. How?” Will said.

“I don’t know where the trackers are or how many of them are in his body. All I know is that there might be a way to track the signal they are emitting.” Samantha and Will started to work to find and remove the trackers from ALs body. They worked through the night and in the morning woke up Dunn. They extracted twenty trackers from AL’s body. Samantha was sure that was all of them. Dunn paid Will two hundred and fifty dollars and Will left. AL helped him carry his boxes.

With all the money Dunn took from the police station, he got new ID’s for all of them and they left the city behind them. They travelled far away, as they could and ended on a chain of tropical islands surrounded by the blue sea. They split what was left of the money, Samantha and AL thanked Dunn one more time for helping them, said their goodbyes and parted ways. 

Dunn stood on the beach for a while looking at the blue sea thinking ‘ _How strange it is that, on a blue planet, such a small amount of blue liquid can so drastically change three lives._ ’

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :)
> 
> Every comment is welcome.


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